Is it true that lightning does not hit the same place twice?

According to legend, lightning never affects the same point of the earth's surface twice. We checked how much this statement is consistent with science.

This entertaining fact, which has long entered into a sustainable expression, everywhere found as in popular science literature (the book of psychologist Robert Sternberg "Intellect of success"), and in the artistic (Roman Arkady Vasiliev "At one in the afternoon, your Excellency ..."). Motivational speaker Brian Tracy in his bestseller "How to get rich from scratch" declaresthat the probability of a zipper in the same place for two years is likely to win the lottery - one to several million. In one of Michael Bond about the Bear Paddington, Michael Bond Approvedthat such an event is simply rare. But Jules Verne in "Children of Captain Grant" He describes the case when lightning beats in the same place five to six times in a row.

A thunderstorm is a phenomenon that has been struck by human imagination since ancient times, since it was accompanied by significant noise and bright light effects. It is no accident that many peoples of the world were the supreme god precisely Thunderersometimes with a bundle Lightning In the hands. And beliefs associated with thunder and lightning, human civilization gave rise to during its existence There are plenty.

The simple evidence of the erroneity of the statement may be the fact of the existence of such a common device as lightning rod (not quite correctly called a thunderbone). Indeed, if he does not attract lightning blows, then at least intercepts them, that is, he repeatedly takes a blow to himself. However, we live in an era when you can verify the justice of one or another idea of ​​a natural phenomenon and a fully scientific way, which scientists actively use. This fate did not bypass and the belief about the repeatedness of lightning in the same place.

About 20 years ago, scientists William Valin and Philip Cherder from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at Arizona University Analyzed Video recording of lightning strikes in the local city of Tuson over the summer of 1997. As it turned out, in 136 out of 386 outbreaks (35%), lightning struck the same place of the Earth two or more times. In addition, physicists came to the conclusion that after the first blow of the lightning, it will hit 10-100 m from the previous place with a probability of 67%.

“Most people believe that lightning struck in one place once. In our study, we have proved that in a third of cases, lightning strikes one point several times. The probability with which lightning will hit you if you get to where it has already hit is approximately 45% - it used to be that it was zero, ”said the chaster then.

In 2019, an international research group led by scientists from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) held study, which was designed not only to confirm the possibility of re -hit the lightning in the same place, but to explain the dynamics of this quite frequent, as already believed, phenomena. For a detailed study of the development of lightning outbreaks, a radio telescope was used Lofar.

Lightning is an ordinary electric spark caused by the difference between positive and negative charges. At the same time, the discharge forms an extensive network of streams of several kilometers long - peculiar threads between heaven and earth. Studies have shown that negative charges in a thunderstorm cloud are not discharged in one outbreak, but partially preserved. As soon as the charge in the cloud again becomes strong enough, the flow is restored along the old route, which leads to the second category of lightning. Thanks to this mechanism, lightning can beat several times in the same place. In other words, the foci of the charge, which are formed as a result of one lightning strike, lay the way for others.

An employee of the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Iudin in his workpublished in the journal Atmospheric Research. In both research, scientists note that the repeated effect is observed in the case of a negative discharge, but the positive leads to the cessation of the existence of the entire lightning system.

Thus, the point at which the lightning recently hit is not only excluded as a possible future target, but is a rather likely addressee of the new category.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Lightning REALLY DOES STRIKE MORE THE TWICE
2. Lightning Totly Does Strike Twice, and Now Scientists Know Why